“Just don’t have blood sugar spikes in the morning!” Anyone who clicks through social media or nutritional guides quickly gets the impression that a sweet breakfast, for example with jam bread and orange juice, is the direct route to cravings, weight gain and metabolic problems. The seemingly simple solution: have a hearty breakfast.

But the matter is not quite that clear, says nutritionist Sandra Habicht in an interview with FOCUS online: “No matter whether it’s sweet or not sweet – it should be healthy.”

After eating, blood sugar spikes

One thing is certain: Blood sugar usually rises after eating. This so-called postprandial blood sugar rise is not a breakfast phenomenon, but rather normal and occurs as soon as we consume food rich in carbohydrates. So plant-based food as well as grain and sugary products such as

• Noodles
• rice
• Pastries and bread
• potatoes
• oatmeal
• legumes
• Fruit
• sweets

During digestion, the carbohydrates from food break down into sugar and enter the blood. As a result, blood sugar levels rise. With the help of the hormone insulin, the sugar enters the cells, where it is converted into energy. The blood sugar level drops again. Fluctuations in blood sugar levels after eating are therefore normal.

Carbohydrates: Speed ​​matters

However, things become unfavorable when blood sugar rises very quickly and very sharply. This is particularly the case with so-called “quickly available” or “simple” carbohydrates. Compared to “complex” or “slow” carbohydrates, they consist of short sugar chains that the body quickly breaks down into individual sugar building blocks.

They are contained, for example, in household and powdered sugar, milk sugar (lactose) or honey and therefore in foods such as

• Soft drinks, lemonades and fruit juices
• Sweets, ice cream, cookies
• Jam, honey
• White bread, toast bread, pretzels

These foods provide quick energy and are therefore good sources of energy before exercise. But they also bring with them a problem: just as quickly as blood sugar and available energy rise, they also fall again.

Beware of food cravings

If a meal, such as breakfast, consists largely or even entirely of such fast carbohydrates, this has noticeable consequences immediately afterwards: “We then get this craving. After the high, the blood sugar drops sharply and we get hungry for the next sweet thing that is quickly available,” explains Habicht. In the long term, this leads to irregular eating behavior and often to weight gain.

The insulin balance is also put under strain: a sharp and rapid increase in blood sugar leads to increased insulin release. “The insulin overreacts, so to speak,” explains Habicht. There is no longer any sugar in the blood to break down. A permanently elevated insulin level favors long term

• overweight,
• Insulin resistance
• and type 2 diabetes

Having only a light bread with butter and jam for breakfast is actually unfavorable, says Habicht in an interview: “It’s more suitable as a sweet in between meals.”

This is how you can have a healthy – even sweet – breakfast

But sweet doesn’t always have to mean unhealthy – and especially doesn’t always have to be based on fast carbohydrates. Oatmeal and fruit, for example, just like whole grain bread, nuts and vegetables, consist largely of complex or long-chain carbohydrates. The body takes longer to break them down into sugars, so blood sugar rises more slowly after eating.

Instead of being sweet or savory, it should be more about whether a breakfast is healthy, says Habicht: “A meal should be more than just a source of food and energy. It should also give you something: fruit, vegetables, fiber, proteins – ideally all of them.”

The expert recommends the following as a balanced breakfast meal:

• Natural yogurt
• with fruit
• and oatmeal.

If you prefer a hearty breakfast, she recommends one

• Whole wheat bread
• with cheese or cream cheese,
• and some fruit or vegetables.

Oatmeal as a secret ingredient for stable blood sugar?

By the way, oatmeal is a real insider tip. They are rich in vegetable protein, unsaturated fatty acids and, above all, fiber. They are not only good for the intestines, but also stabilize blood sugar levels by slowing down the absorption of sugar and increasing the feeling of satiety.

Habicht is therefore investigating with the team from the Professorship of Nutrition in Prevention and Therapy at the University of Giessen whether a sweet, sugary meal can be made healthier with oatmeal. The hypothesis: The fiber contained in oatmeal could flatten the rise in blood sugar after a sweet meal.

Over 100 test subjects have already tasted a dessert either with or without 20 grams of oat flakes.

“They just don’t show up in blood sugar”

However, initial results show no significant difference in the blood sugar curves. To the researcher’s surprise, oatmeal intake did not lead to an additional increase in blood sugar. “The 20 grams of oat flakes contain twelve grams of carbohydrates that are not fiber. And we don’t find them in the blood sugar. So they just don’t show up,” reports Habicht in surprise.

As a possible explanation, she cites: “We assume that there is delayed gastric emptying and that is why the carbohydrates from the entire meal are not absorbed.” Another possibility is that the carbohydrates are not physiologically available and are not absorbed.

This raises new questions for nutritional research, but oats remain a valuable food for everyday life:

• filling,
• nutrient rich
• and possibly more metabolically beneficial than pure carbohydrate content numbers suggest.

The further study results up to 2026 should show what potential really lies in the inconspicuous flake.